Measuring Pro-Poor Growth

This section presents the different approaches that exist to measure pro-poor growth and some of the practical considerations that are derived from them, and it does not recommend one measure over another. The aggregate measures analyze the distributional pattern of growth regardless of the definition of pro-poor growth that we use. On the other hand, the absolute and relative measures are directly related to the chosen definition.

Aggregate Measures

The overall distribution pattern of growth can be analyzed by the following tools:

Growth Incidence Curve — Ravallion and Chen, 2003
The Datt-Ravallion Decomposition of Growth and Inequality — Datt and Ravallion, 1992

Absolute Measures

The pattern of pro-poor growth can be measured using the absolute definition by the following tools:

Growth Elasticity of Poverty Rate of Pro-Poor Growth — (Ravallion and Chen, 2003)
Rate of Pro-Poor Growth — (Ravallion and Chen, 2003)

Relative Measures

The pattern of pro-poor growth can be measured using the relative definition by the following tools:

Poverty Bias of Growth (PBG) — (McCulloch and Baulch, 2000)
Pro-Poor Growth Index (PPGI) — (Kakwani and Pernia, 2000)
Poverty Equivalent Growth Rate (PEGR) — (Kakwani and Son, 2002)
Poverty Growth Curve (PGC) — (Son, 2003)

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